When the calendar turns to August, it’s usually time to think about setting pastures up for stockpile grazing. Stockpile grazing is the practice of letting pastures grow through fall (usually 60 days or more) until frost, and then grazing them as far into winter as conditions allow. Stockpile grazing is often set into motion in early August harvest.
Variable corn stands, short hayfields, and parched pastures are par for the course with the drought this growing season. As a result, graziers are already dipping into stored winter feed, while hay supplies become increasingly limited and expensive.
The decision to utilize late-summer planted forage crops as a feed source may be necessary when in-season crop yields fail to meet expectations or opportunities exist in the current crop rotation. One should evaluate the decision to plant and harvest late-summer planted forage crops carefully.
There is a lot of solar being sited in Wisconsin with some projects reaching a pretty massive scale. The traditional narrative has been hello solar, goodbye agriculture, however a new crop of farmers, researchers, and solar companies are thinking differently: how can we continue to farm this land between, under, and around solar panels?
Corn silage is unique compared to other multicut forage systems, such as alfalfa, as there is only one opportunity to harvest the crop annually. Therefore, farmers, agronomists, and agricultural professionals must dilligently monitor corn silage acres to identify the optimal harvest time to maximize forage yield and quality, as well as to ensure the proper moisture content for ensiling.
In the increasing discussions about how to address climate change there are conflicting claims about the need to address methane (CH4) emissions. Some people argue that methane emitted by cows is a primary cause of climate change.
Since May much of Wisconsin has faced drought. While some areas got spotty summer thunderstorms other areas have not. The scarcity of rainfall and unrelenting heat means that since the first Badger Crop Drought Webinar in June the drought has gotten worse in parts of Wisconsin.
Sorghum plants such as sudangrass and sorghum-sudan hybrids are tropical summer annuals well adapted to drought conditions with leaves and stems with a waxy covers that limits water losses. They are widely grown for grazing, silage as well as green chop in areas that are too dry for corn.
Whether it’s reducing nitrates leached to groundwater, phosphorus to our water bodies or increasing soil organic matter and microbial biomass, the answer is generally yes. But in trying to integrate cover crops into a cropping system, what are the considerations–species selection, seeding, benefits and drawbacks–that need to be addressed along the way?
Potato leafhopper (Empoasca fabae) is a serious economic pest across multiple cropping systems such as all types of beans, clover, apples, and potatoes. Alfalfa is a valuable forage crop widely cultivated for its high protein content and ability to fix nitrogen into the soil.
A recap of the Badger Crop Connect webinar on July 12, 2023 Flash Drought in Corn: Where do we go from here? Joe Lauer UW-Madison Corn Agronomist and Extension Specialist UW-Madison corn agronomist Joe Lauer explains to webinar viewers that as the state’s corn crop nears mid-July the water-holding capacity of soils has allowed deep […]
The June 28th Badger Crop Connect session features discussion from Dr. Damon Smith, Extension Funded Faculty and Professor of Epidemiology and Field Crop Diseases in the Plant Pathology Department Dr. Smith reviews the biology of the tar spot fungus in corn and the work done to ground-truth models of fungal development to refine prediction tools.
